


Stress Cleaning

by JhinnyJaxy (ZoicZeph)



Series: A Drunk Idiot or a Sober Psychopath: Which is Worse? [1]
Category: League of Legends
Genre: Canon Divergent, Fluff, Jax cleans when he's stressed, Jhin is a sassy bastard, M/M, Mild Language, Neither of them know how to do that whole affection thing well, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-27 21:03:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13889076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZoicZeph/pseuds/JhinnyJaxy
Summary: Jax isn't one to put much effort into cleaning. Usually things are tidy as is, living with a man such as Jhin, who has.. very specific expectations about how clean a house should be. But, he was also one to drown himself in work when things were not well for him - but goes a little overboard with that. Worried and mildly upset that someone has intruded on 'his thing' in domestic living, Jhin confronts the fighter after he's suffered through watching the man clean a single bowl an unnecessary amount of times.Bickering, fluff, and very confused attempts at physical affection ahead.





	Stress Cleaning

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic I've written in a while, and the first one I've posted on Ao3, so sorry if some things don't make sense!

“Darling, this is a waste of time - please stop.”

“It is  _not_  a waste ‘a time.”

“Yes it is!”

“How th’  _fuck_  is cleaning up th’ house ‘a waste of time’, smartass?”

Jax had, indeed, been picking up odds and ends about the house for some time - tidying up the entryway, taking out coats and things that needed washing, re-arranging the pot rack a couple times. He made himself quite busy. There was no  _apparent_  reason for this, however. The house had been cleaned recently, and didn’t necessarily  _need_  the tidy-up. It was quite appreciated - that shoe rack was getting a little hectic - but not required.

He had started this morning in the kitchen with the pot rack, moved on quickly to sorting the cubbards, scratching a thing or two off the cooktop, and shaking out the flowery purple rug outside. He bounced from the entryway to the family room to the study and so fourth, picking up the smaller, mundane jobs that were often looked over in the bigger problems of dusting bookshelves and scrubbing floor mats. What sparked it all escaped the Grandmaster, for all he could remember after a day’s work of hobbling about was that he was really annoyed with the squeaky table leg (which, regrettably, he had not managed to fix - Jhin was oddly persnickety about people messing with his things).

Other than that, the only problem he had was he was feeling a little off today. But that wasn’t any different from any other day, so he didn’t think much of it.

“That’s not what I was referring to, love.”

“Ah, so yer talkin’ about this conversation, right?” Jax quipped sarcastically. “That’s probably it.”

Jhin’s reaction gave the sense that didn’t go over well, his face shifting from anxiously patient to utterly peeved in under a second. He locked eyes with Jax, the intensity of his expression making it appear as though a roaring fire hid just behind it, ready to burst out and lay waste to anything before it. His jaw stiffened and the fighter  _swore_  he could hear something crack.

The man’s voice lost all tenderness it had before, instead opting for a more aggressively concerned tone, “You’ve cleaned that same bowl seven times now.”

Jax flinched and looked to the item in question.

“Oh.”

“Yes, ‘oh’ indeed,” Jhin said as he snatched the bowl and scrubbing thing from Jax, pushing the smaller man away from the sink with his hip. He rinsed it, then started scrubbing it again, furiously, for the eighth time. “You’ve also been wearing your shoes around the house. I  _did_  tell you not to do that, didn’t I?”

“I- yeah, you did, I just.. I forgot, s-”

“Go take them off.”

Jax slumped and made his way over to the entryway. He took a seat on the bench and slipped off his shoes, tucking them neatly in his designated cubby. For a moment, he glanced to the door. He momentarily wondered if he put the pail he was using earlier that day in the right spot, but shook it off and returned to the kitchen.

Jhin placed the bowl neatly on a dish rack and began to dry his hands witha  towel, “Furthermore, you’re wearing your coat indoors again.“

“Sorry,” saying that was nearly a reflex for Jax now, after years of dealing with pissy customers unaware that  _yes_ , your unprotected items  _will_  be broken if someone launches a 200-something man on top of them.

“Don’t apologize, are you cold?”

“No, it’s… kindof a comfort thing.”

“So your shirts are uncomfortable.”

“No.”

“Your sweaters, then?”

“No.”

“Then what do you mean by ‘a comfort thing’?”

“I dunno,” Jax gave a dismissive shrug. “I just like wearing jackets.”

Jhin closed his eyes and dropped the towel on the corner of the sink, splayed his hands on the counter before him, and took a deep breath. He had several different ways to approach the matter. One; he could continue his current trajectory, bossing and ordering Jax around, using intimidation to get what he wanted. This was the easiest route to take, for obvious reasons, but not the best by any means beyond cold and calcuolatory. He recognized that. Two; he could switch to a gentler approach, which would put the both of them at ease and may lead to a much-needed one-on-one conversation. But, that would be hard to pull off, given he’s started this all by stupidly letting his temper get the best of him. Three; he could try and merge the first two; proving a more sensible transition, but having the same problems as before and not all of the benefits. The fourth option would be to simply walk away. (This, he obviously wouldn’t do.)

Jhin breathed out, slowly and calmly. Without opening his eyes, he furrowed his brow and mulled over all of this.

“Obijia.”

Jax flinched again upon hearing his full name*, mispronounced slightly, but still not something he hears everyday, “Yeah?”

Jhin clasped his hands together and took a few more breaths. Then, he turned to his other and looked him over. He looked quite tired. He usually  _is_  tired, but often he didn’t  _look_  tired - merely acts like it. Whenever the fighter looked tired, it was more than likely he skipped a night’s sleep, or a well-needed morning nap. Despite Jhin’s general cold attitude towards anyone else; he genuinely felt.. something. Maybe pity, maybe worry, maybe something else entirely. Whatever it was, it made him feel - for lack of a flashier word - sad.

He lifted his hand, hovering it just by the fighter’s face. He froze like that, unsure of what to do and scared to take the wrong step. Jhin  _had_  a plan, a rather good plan - he thought - but he foolishly strayed from it. And here he was, awkwardly holding out his hand no-where near Jax’s, a dumb wide-eyed look on his face, slowly forgetting what he was doing in the first place, and hesitant to proceed. Jax had no clue what the other was doing, but watched his hand carefully, not moving his eyes away from it for a moment.

He was waiting for something. Anything, really. A slap, a lighthearted shoulder pat, a punch even, or maybe the start to a silly hour-long rant about the fact oranges were the bane of existence and should have never been created (a notion he, honestly, agreed with full heartedly). The silence, for him, was getting awkward. He was unsure if he was doing.. whatever he was doing right. He didn’t want to do anything, at the risk of ruining the something that.. hasn’t happened yet. The thought crossed his mind that what Jhin was  _trying_  to do is to give the fighter a little dose of physical affection. Suddenly, that was the only thing Jax could think of.

 _What could it be,_  he wondered.  _A head pat? Was he going to put his hands on my shoulders? Was he going to give me a hug? A hug sounds good right now. Or - Sel forbid - a nose boop. Maybe a kiss! Or a hug! Wait, I already listed hug - I hope it’s a hug!_

As his mind spun with such thoughts, Jax unconsciously reached up and took the other’s hand. He ran his thumb along the boney knuckles, marveled at the fact that there was no scarring on the other’s fingers (as opposed to the fighter’s own, which looked like he stuck them into a blender and didn’t bother to scrub off the juice stains before bandaging them). He pulled Jhin’s hand down and pressed his cheek into the palm of it with a low purr.

The both of them relaxed. Then, they stood like that in blissful silence. Jhin brushed his thumb across the Grandmaster’s cheek, who responded by gently gripping his wrist and giving another purr. Jhin laughed and placed his free hand on Jax’s other cheek. He squished Jax’s face, the fighter pouted and made a muffled noise of disapproval. Then, he leaned in and placed a soft kiss on the shorter one’s forehead.

“Thank you for cleaning up, my dear,” Jhin started, his voice little more than an affectionate whisper. “I can tell you tried very hard - I mean, there’s only  _one_ personI know that washes dishes more than one time.”

Jax looked dumbly into the taller man’s eyes. He didn’t get it at first, but the playful smirk on Jhin’s face somehow made the pieces fit together. He laughed, loudly. Perhaps a little  _too_  loud.

“Hyeah, I, uh.. oatmeal.”

“Oh yes, oatmeal is terrible.”

“Totally.”

“Have I told you of the time I had to scrub a pot  _sixteen times_  just to get some old oatmeal out of it?”

“E jia, you haven’t,” Jax was beyond baffled at that.  _Sixteen times_ , what even happened there? “How long did it jus’ sit there?”

“Three. Months.”

_“Three?”_

“Yes!” Jhin exclaimed, his face lighting up as he began to regale his harrowing story, his hands moving around wildly and accentuating every word. The short of it being his servants had failed to do as asked and an unfortunate accident with a carriage on his way back delayed his usually punctual return home. 

“It was absolutely  _horrible_! Not only did I have a near half-pot of oatmeal that could  _damn_   _well_  pass for cement, I had ants!  _Ants_ , darling! In  _my_  house!”

“Yeesh..” Jax could already feel his skin crawling at the thought of them.

“I  _know_. Thank the gods they were only here for that pot. All I had to do was use a few home remedies, lemons and traps and such. It took a week to get rid of them! A  _week_  to get those ants out of  _my_  kitchen. Any longer and I  _swear_  to you I would have torn this house down and re-built it from the ground up - tootsweet.”

Jax snickered.. tootsweet. Ah, Jhin always said weird things like that. It’s rather odd - the seemingly random sayings the man would through out sounded both childish and refined. Whereas Jax would just say whatever garbage came to mind, Jhin seemed to always find just the right exclamation for whatever moment you could think of. He had his moments where he swore like nobody’s business (probably Jax’s doing, if we’re being honest), but most times he stayed composed despite saying wacky things like ‘fopnoodle’ and ‘ninnyhammer’.

Jax felt a hand pat the top of his head and ruffle his hair.

“Back to my  _original_  point,” Jhin gave one of his rarer-than-rare toothy grins, amused as he watched Jax fix his hair. “Why not take a break, love? You’ve been working hard, it’d be very much earned - in my opinion. And I think some relaxation will do you good. You look horrid, as well..”

“Oh..” Jax scratched the side of his head, adopting a sheepish smile. “Uh.. I.. haven’t been feelin’ all that, yano? The usual.. sleepy sad stuff I got goin’ on?”

Jhin nodded knowingly, “I figured as much. Thank you for telling me, I was a little… on edge, not knowing for sure what was wrong. You know I am always here if you need to talk about something. I might not be the  _best_  to talk to, but I will be there regardless. I think that’s enough, right?”

The Grandmaster beamed, it felt good to know that, “Certainly better than what I’ve had before.”

Jhin smiled back, giving the shorter man another kiss; this time on the cheek.

“It is exactly one hour until sunset. You promised me yesterday you’d come and watch it with me. We best be getting set up, unless you want to freeze out there once the sun goes away.”

“Ya mean unless  _you_  want t’ freeze.”

The Virtuoso gave a sideways grin, then peppered Jax’s cheeks with small kisses.

“I’ll go get some blankets,” he hummed against Jax’s cheek. “I presume you’ll prepare a few snacks?”

Jax purred happily at the kisses, “Yeah.. whatchya thinkin’?”

“Why, I  _just_  bought cookies! What else do you think we’d bring?” 

“ _Cookies?_  Hell yeah, I’ll go find ‘em.”

**Author's Note:**

> *Before the recent lore dump with Icathia, where Jax's full first name is revealed to be 'Saijax', I headcanoned 'Obijiax' or 'Obijia' as Jax's first name.
> 
> (Additional Note: the Jax I write is also of a mountain-dwelling race called 'Laidians', who live in eastern Ionia. I usually don't go by Canon lore for Jax, since I've put a lot of time into creating lore for him on my own before his lore revamp this year. However for Jhin, I generally go by the Canon lore and timeline while writing him.)


End file.
